"Surround the UN office and take Sri Lankan staff hostage " : Govt minister urges public

By Lakna Paranamanna | Daily Mirror
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Government Minister Wimal Weerawansa has urged the public to surround the UN office in Sri Lanka and trap the staff inside until a decision is taken by the UN Secretary General to dissolve the panel he appointed on Sri Lanka.

Weerawansa told reporters today that the appointment of the three-member advisory panel by UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon is the primary step that would prompt the Sri Lankan leaders to be produced to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“This appointment should not be perceived upon as a simple act because the next step of UN would be to appoint an investigative committee to look into the possible violations of human rights and war crimes. This would eventually lead to the leaders and war heroes of Sri Lanka to be produced to the ICJ,” Weerawansa, who is also the leader of the National Freedom Front, said.

Weerawansa who also spoke of Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Sarath Fonseka’s agreement to talk with the UN panel, described of it as a revolting move towards betraying the country’s sovereignty.

© Daily Mirror

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Q+A: Sri Lanka's 2010 budget finally lands

By C. Bryson Hull | Reuters
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Sri Lanka on Tuesday presented its long overdue 2010 budget, the first since the end of a quarter-century war last year and a major element of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's planned economic reforms.

The IMF released a delayed $408 million loan tranche right before the budget was presented, saying the spending plan would "significantly address past fiscal slippages" if executed.

Here are some questions and answers about the budget impact:

THE 2010 BUDGET DEFICIT FORECAST IS FOR 8 PERCENT OF GDP, AGAINST AN IMF TARGET OF 7 PERCENT. WILL THAT CAUSE SNAGS IN FUTURE DISBURSEMENTS OF THE LOAN?

Not really, as long as the government is acting in the spirit of the reforms pledged under the $2.6 billion loan. The global lender has been accommodating to Sri Lanka, as it views it as a success story since the end of the war.

Sri Lanka's government recognises that is has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the economy after nearly three decades of war, so it has greater incentive to act than nearly any other previous administration.

WHAT ABOUT GOVERNMENT BORROWING?

It's down 7.8 percent overall. Total domestic financing this year is forecast at 315.3 billion rupees, down from 392.5 in 2009, while foreign financing is estimated at 123.5 billion versus 83.9 billion last year.

Lower domestic financing means interest rates in Sri Lanka should remain low for the near term and help a nascent rebound in private sector credit growth. Foreign investors who want Sri Lankan government securities still face a 10 percent foreign holding limit that is all but topped out. [nSGE64H0F7]

WILL REFORMS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR BECOME A REALITY?

Like the IMF said, it is all about execution. The budget speech announced the creation of a new Ministry of Management Reforms to make the public sector a revenue generator.

The ministry faces a tall order in creating efficiency and accountability in a bloated, notoriously slow-moving public sector that remains a major source of patronage. Many are sceptical Rajapaksa will resist the temptation to dole it out.

WHAT ABOUT THE EXPECTED TAX REFORMS?

A number have been announced over the last month, so the budget had nothing new. But a presidential commission tasked with streamlining the tax structure is expected to announce its recommendations by August. Look for the panel to propose a simplified personal and corporate tax regime, replacing one that is a byzantine, costly mix of Sri Lanka's history as colonial trading outpost and a post-independence socialist state.

© Reuters

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General Fonseka 'ready to talk' with UN panel

The detained former military commander in Sri Lanka says he is prepared to meet the special panel appointed to advice the UN chief on alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka.

Gen Sarath Fonseka told BBC Sandeshaya that even President Mahinda Rajapaksa has agreed with the UN to investigate alleged human rights violations during the last phase of the war.

The UN secretary general has set up a panel to look into alleged human rights abuses during the final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war in 2009.

Ban Ki-moon's spokesman said the three-man panel would advise on how to deal with alleged perpetrators.

Rights groups accuse both sides of war crimes - a claim which has been denied.

"I think this committee is a result of that agreement with President Rajapaksa," Gen Fonseka told BBCSinhala.com.

He stressed that any country should take steps to resolve issues with the international community if there are any question marks over the conduct of the said country.

Rejecting the appointment of the panel, the government said the panel members will not be allowed to visit the country.

In an interview with Times of India newspaper, President Rajapaksa has dismissed the panel.

"We should not try to get involved in a conflict with the UN," Gen Fonseka said.

"As a citizen of Sri Lanka, if I get an opportunity to support such an inquiry, I think we shouldn't hesitate to do that."

The former military commander who is facing two military trials says that the conditions imposed by the European Union to extend the GSP+ facility are fair.

"I don't think it is an intervention in internal affairs," he said.

"The EU has demanded the release of political prisoners which includes me," Gen Fonseka added.

© BBC Sinhala

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No pay hike this year, revenue proposals dropped

By Saman Indrajith | The Island
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Acting Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Sarath Amunugama yesterday reiterated the UPFA’s commitment to education, health and assistance to vulnerable groups, rural community, traditional and small enterprises, public servants and the working population to improve their living conditions.

Presenting the 2010 budget on behalf of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who holds the finance portfolio, Dr. Amunugama said in the post-LTTE era, priority would be given to combating crime, the underworld, narcotics trade and the illicit liquor trade.

Categorising yesterday’s presentation as a medium-term road map, which outlined the entire range of on-going government programmes, Minister Amunugama said that it would be the basis for completing all preparatory work and finalising action plans to be implemented beginning next month.

As speculated in political and financial circles, the government did not present revenue proposals prompting a section of the Opposition to stage a boisterous protest. Led by UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera, a group of MPs displayed placards targeting the government over rising cost of living and failure on the part the Rajapaksa administration to grant the promised Rs. 2,500 salary increase.

It was not clear how the MPs had managed to smuggle in placards into Parliament. Dr. Amunugama assured that the revenue proposals and other important issues, including a salary increase to the public sector, would be submitted in November 2010, when the government would present the 2011 budget.

The Opposition repeatedly interrupted Dr. Amunugama as he presented the budget speech.

© The Island

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• Budget deficit 8% of GDP for 2010 (The Island)

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Tigers lurk in the shadows after 14 months of peace

By Mick O'Reilly | Gulf News
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Elephant Pass: The military checkpoint here is sponsored by the Colonial Group, pipe and steel manufacturers based in Colombo. It's a well-built structure allowing soldiers to stand guard behind sandbags, neatly felled palm tree trunks and some steel railings.

A soldier with a whistle stops traffic on the A9 allowing visitors to cross the road.

Elephant Pass, 2.5 metres above sea level, as the sign on the A9 says, is now a tourist attraction.

Brightly painted Lanka Ashok Leyland buses are parked on a gravel parking lot which is replete with corrugated steel latrines for men and women. The latrines, however, are not sponsored by the Colonial Group of Colombo.

Sixteen months ago, this stretch of highway, a vital junction between north and south, and at a vital crossroads on the Jaffna Peninsula, was the scene of a bloody battle between LTTE forces and Sri Lankan army forces.

In May, President Mahinda Rajapakse unveiled a large monument here to commemorate that struggle. These words are carved into granite plinths at the base of the monument:

"Place where enormous strength, force, power and determination concentrated from four directions."

It continues: "With the objective of engarlanding the reconciled persons, the valiant, heroic and valorous troops of the 57th and 58th Divisions approached diligently, courageously with might and main and without a wink of sleep from the Southern direction and tranversed scrubs, impassable moats, quagmires and demolishing dreadful traps and the troops of the 53rd and 56th Divisions advanced from the Northern Direction, converged on this historical place of Elephant Pass and liberated the long path of brotherhood with a magnitude of force annihilating terrorism and social disparities on the 10th January 2009."

‘Important time'

It's also repeated in Sinhalese and Tamil, just in case there's any doubt.

For the majority of his 50 years, Bluda Awickermansanghe has lived with violence and war. A manager at a garment factory in Jaffna, Awickermansanghe is using this Friday afternoon holiday as an opportunity to visit the war memorials here and at nearby Kilinochchi and pay tribute to all who died in 37 years of civil war.

"It's an important time for us all now in Sri Lanka," he says, looking out over the flat landscape and joining roads from the new memorial raised 50 metres above the army checkpoint.

"We have all endured so much suffering from all sides and we have to learn to work together and rebuild Sri Lanka. It has great potential for tourism up here in Jaffna but now there is nothing — only landmines. You are the first foreigner visitor I have met in Jaffna in years," he tells me.

He also looks at his 20-year-old daughter, Tajan.

"I never want her to have to live what we have lived through. Thankfully the government managed to defeat the LTTE and now that is behind us. We must look to the future but we must never forget the terrible war we all suffered through."

Little Sanduni, 11, a friend's daughter, also accompanies them on this pilgrimage.

"She is our hope for the future," Awickermansanghe says.

On one side of the road, the hulk of a rusting armoured bulldozer sits on a plinth, flower garlands hanging off twisted wire and gaping blast holes. A plaque marks that a young Sri Lankan soldier was posthumously awarded with a medal of honour for stopping the LTTE bulldozer at it tried to take an army bunker. On the other side of the road, behind the army checkpoint sponsored by the Colonial Group of Colombo, a topless Prado sits on bricks, its bodywork riddled with bullet holes. This was Prabhakaran's car, and some senior LTTE leaders were killed in it as they tried to flee the battle here at Elephant Pass.

At Kilinochchi, flattened buildings hem the A9. A 20-metre wide and 100-metre tall concrete tower lies toppled in a twisted mess of rusting rebar and rocks. A platoon of young soldiers clamber into a tractor-drawn trailer, balancing awkwardly as it fires into life and pulls away.

After 14 months of peace, there is little sign of reconstruction in this small city that was the headquarters of the LTTE for nearly 20 years.

Instead, newly constructed sandbag emplacements are located every 100 metres down the main street, soldiers and armed police patrol the shops and stalls that are hawking vegetables, coconuts and dried fish and shrimp.

Every vehicle passing north to Jaffna or south to Maankulam on the A9 are stopped, identities checked, contents searched.

The only new construction visible so far as a peace dividend for the people of Kilinochchi is another new war memorial, opened by President Mahinda Rajapaske in May. It's a huge grey-painted concrete cube with a large crack running through it, dissected by a protruding brass shell. On top, a bronze lotus moves awkwardly in the wind. The monument is supposed to symbolise the struggle of all Sri Lankans in overcoming the LTTE terrorists. I can't help but think that with the size of the crack running through the concrete cube, it represents an island forever divided.

Further up the A9 near Chavakachcheri, the electricity company is planning to replace the concrete pylons along the road. The original ones are long since gone, blown up, knocked down, out of commission. The company has left the new concrete poles every 20 metres by the side of the road, waiting to be erected. The poles, however, won't be going up anytime soon, not until the land mines are gone.

All along this road, for kilometres on end, yellow tape is strung, written in Sinhalese, Tamil and English warning: MINES! More ominous red signs with skull and crossbones also warn of the landmine danger.

Hunt

I watch one young soldier move back gingerly from behind the yellow tape to the cleared roadside, wrestling with a large blast-proof shield as he does so. He pulls off a mask ever so much like that worn by a welder, only more Perspex than metal. He is covered in sweat — nerves not humidity. He sits and draws out a cigarette, a nicotine break well deserved.

It will be years before these paddy fields and palm groves are safe to use.

Demining programmes active on the Jaffna peninsula estimate that there are still some 25,000 antipersonnel mines to be located in this thin neck of land. Since they started demining programmes in earnest last year, the casualty rate has fallen to single digits per month.

Scrap metal recycling along this A9 is a risky business — the Sri Lankan army has organised one drop-off point. Mortar shell casings are in one pile, artillery shell casings in another, a third for bits of assorted shrapnel such as spent RPG rounds and rocket parts.

For all of this landscape scarred by nearly decades, there is every sign of the victor and none of the vanquished.

Every 150 metres along the A9, soldiers stand guard, with every village or town being home to a different battalion or detachment, welfare stores and rest stops being run by the military.

In Jaffna, a pokey and dirty bar sells beer in big bottles, cigarettes are stubbed underfoot, glasses are swirled in basins and arrak flows freely.

If you want to find LTTE fighters, this would be as good a place as any to start the hunt.

A wide-eyed off-duty police officer slurs his words; a driver hustles for fares, a jeweller smokes cigarettes too close to his yellowing fingers while a tall, quiet man with a steely stare listens a lot and says little.

I explain where I'm from, make small talk about different parts of the world, and try to explain what has taken me to this place where few foreigners venture.

"The LTTE are still here?" I ask quietly, out of earshot of the now drowsy and dosing off-duty policeman.

"Yes," the tall quiet one with the steely stare says. "We are. This is our home."

© Gulf News

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The failure of international journalism in Sri Lanka

By Basil Fernando | Asian Human Rights Commission
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For many decades now, international journalists have interpreted every story that has emerged from Sri Lanka to be some kind of war story. Some journalists have proposed that Sri Lanka’s use of overwhelming force was able to eradicate terrorism in the country, and that other countries such as the United States, should follow suit. The pathetic failure of international journalism is demonstrated by these endeavors.

In recent years, Sri Lanka has undergone a systemic collapse, as the rule of law system and any semblance of democracy have crumbled. This is a story that has never been portrayed adequately by international journalists; instead, almost all journalists continue to refer to Sri Lanka as a democracy. Journalists focus on Sri Lanka as a war zone, and there is little reflection about the development of Sri Lanka outside of the discourse of war.

In the south, the Sri Lankan government carried out one of the most ruthless acts of repression in history, killing tens of thousands of civilians between the 1970s and 1990s. The official number of disappearances at the hands of Southern rebel group, Janatha Vimuksthi Peramuna (JVP) is estimated to be around the figure of 30,000. Numerous civil society organizations and international agencies believe that this figure does not fully represent the magnitude of this repression. In terms of statistics, the scale of disappearances that took place in Sri Lanka is similar to what took place in Argentina in the late 1970s. However, while the disappearances in Argentina gained international outrage, the references to similar occurrences which took place in Sri Lanka have been few and far between. The disappearances took place in the south, and the Sri Lankan police and military were mobilized to kill Southern rebels, most of whom were Sinhalese. Since this story did not conform to the ethnic war story that international journalists were constructing about Sri Lanka, it was discarded in favor of a story that was more appropriate for their cause.

In 1978, Sri Lanka adopted a Constitution wherein the Executive President was raised above the law. It was a staggering change; instead of the Constitution being used to bring checks and balances to the Sri Lankan government. It obliterated checks and balances for the Executive President and effectively dismantled Sri Lankan democracy. This experiment has survived, and there has begun a discussion of removing the two-term limit of the President in power and creating a possibility for political transformation equivalent to that which took place under Suharto in Indonesia and in several African countries. However, for international journalists, this issue still did not contest the importance of stories about the war.

The transformation of the Sri Lankan democratic government into an authoritarian system has made freedom of expression an almost impossible function. Media agencies bow to the pressure of this repression. Disappearances and other kinds of attack continue to remain a threat to anyone who exercises their right to oppose this political transformation in the country. The murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga and the brutal attack on several other journalists as well as the fleeing of journalists from Sri Lanka remains a symbol of this vicious repression. Even these stories have been only a passing fancy to international journalists. The story of Lasantha Wickramatunga would have been entirely forgotten had he not received international awards for his actions. Even so, no justice of any kind has been dealt to the perpetrators of this murder. In fact, the identity of those who killed Mr. Wickramatunga remains a mystery. There was no credible investigation into the murder of any kind, demonstrating that the once sclerotic justice system is now entirely incapacitated. The story of the collapse of the administration of justice in Sri Lanka has still not been covered by the international press.

Today, what remains of democracy and the rule of law in Sri Lanka is no different to the dream that amputees have about the continued existence of their lost limbs. The phantom limb complex prevails, while in reality, justice is impossible for those who have been victims of political crimes, as well as those who have suffered serious crimes, such as murder or rape. One story which recently came to the surface was of a man traveling with his wife on a motorbike. The couple was stopped and the woman’s arm was cut off so that the thieves could steal her gold bangles, and her finger was cut off so they could take her gold ring. When her husband tried to resist, he was shot. Last week, a CID inspector who dumped the dead body of a murdered person into the sea was discovered. The magistrate had to issue a warrant to get the Deputy Inspector General arrested because he was avoiding court. Such difficulties which face ordinary Sri Lankans do not attract the attention of international journalists.

The collective failure of the international press has aided Sri Lankan authorities in consolidating an authoritarian regime in which the norms that were established to protect citizens have been broken down. Those journalists who believe in the importance of their role in disseminating information must question why the international media has failed to discuss and analyze the situation in Sri Lanka. There are many similar cases going on in other Asian countries and countries around the world. However, the issue remains that the international press has failed to reflect the depth of the crisis that ordinary Sri Lankan citizens continue to face.

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Basil Fernando is executive director of the Asian Legal Resource Centre, based in Hong Kong. His early career included teaching and practicing law at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. He has held several United Nations-related posts, including appeals counsel under the UNHCR for Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong, officer-in-charge of the Investigation Unit under the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia and chief of legal assistance at the Cambodia Office of the U.N. Center for Human Rights. He is the author of several books on human rights and legal reform issues. He was awarded the Kwangju Human Rights Prize in 2001 in South Korea.

© AHRC

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